The European Parliament's environment committee last week voted to hold its original tough line on bringing aviation into Europe's emissions trading scheme, and MEPs believe that keeping up their pressure for Europe to make progress on climate change will help force a compromise with ministers from member state governments.
Compared with the ministers' position, which is close to that originally proposed by the European Commission, the committee is pressing for the earlier start date of 2011, a lower base emissions cap of 90%, a higher proportion of auctioning initially starting at 25% and specific earmarking of revenues raised from auctioning to be spent tackling climate change.
The two sides will look to broker a deal in June ahead of the Parliament's formal second reading on the subject in July. Failure to achieve this would see conciliation begin.
"We have a long way to go, but I think it is possible," says the report's draftsman, German MEP Peter Liese. He believes the size of the committee's vote - 54 in favour with four against - is important going into the negotiations as it shows the depth of feeling in Parliament on the issue.
His shadow, German socialist MEP Matthias Groote, adds: "I think the council and also the parliament is under pressure because the heads of state announced in March 2007 that they wanted to reduce emissions." He says "we have to act now as time is running out" before next year's parliamentary elections and the end of the current EC term.
European airline bodies, however, have hit out at the Parliament's stance and are urging ministers to stick to their original position.
KLM chief executive Peter Hartman, chairman of the Association of European Airlines, argues that the market environment has drastically changed, with oil prices rising from $40 a barrel at its inception to $130 and industry growth dropping from 6% to 3%. "I sincerely question whether our emissions will be growing at all in the foreseeable future," he says.
Source: Flight International
